Are your medical staff bylaws in compliance with the revised CoPs? Last year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published a final rule revising the Conditions of Participation for hospitals. The rule, which became effective in July 2014, has significant implications for the traditional hospital medical staff structure. In particular, the rule permits a multi-hospital health system to have a unified, system-wide medical staff, rather than a separate medical staff at each hospital, provided that the medical staff at each hospital votes to accept a unified staff structure.

As of January 1, 2015, all medical staffs in multi-hospital systems should have revised their bylaws to describe the process for voting on whether to opt into a unified medical staff—even if no such structure has been proposed. And even if your hospital is not part of a system, it is still advisable that your bylaws include a process for voting on unification so that your medical staff will be prepared should your hospital someday be acquired by or otherwise incorporated into a system with a unified medical staff.

2015 OMSS Annual Meeting The 2015 OMSS Annual Meeting was held June 4-6 in Chicago. Visit the Annual Meeting webpage to read meeting highlights and access a variety of valuable resources associated with the meeting.